Question: Tens of thousands of people in the world need saving from ecological catastrophes, from natural disasters, and many are engaged in the production of weapons of mass destruction, yet they do not feel that they bring grief, troubles, etc. to anyone.
At the same time, when we see a person suffering—for example, a boy being pulled out of the ruins after an earthquake or someone being rescued from a raging river—everyone grieves, everyone watches and worries about that person and what will happen to him.
What is this property in a person that he can worry so much about one person, but he is not touched by the suffering of many?
Answer: One does not imagine oneself in the form of people, in the form of a huge mass. But he immediately imagines himself in the form of a single person and empathizes purely selfishly.
Question: And how can we guide a person to empathize with the global situation, the world?
Answer: We do not have this feeling at all! Let’s say, animals die: there is flooding and forests burning, they run away across the river and drown. We look at it as a catastrophe, that is, purely through reason, philosophically, but we cannot empathize.
And when something happens to a small dog or a cat, then it is another matter, we are ready to kill for it because you put yourself in its place; you can imagine yourself in the place of the victim.
Question: How can we escape this version of events?
Answer: We cannot. Our egoism is set up that way.
Comment: Well, then the future is clear, this is how nations will be destroyed.
My Response: Such is the course of history.
Question: But there must be some way out of this. Has some sensory organ been cut off from us?
Answer: The collective one: the organ of collective perception. We cannot feel the integrality of a huge group or a nation. We sometimes conform to it but only if we feel included in them.
Question: And what about compassion for the world you keep talking about?
Answer: It depends on upbringing. And not only on upbringing but on the fact that with the help of upbringing, we induce the development of this sensation in us. After all, we were once in it. We all came from a group, a tribe, around a campfire, from a cave, and so on.
Question: Do we have a genetic record that we were once as one?
Answer: Our ego suppresses it.
Question: But can this memory be restored, that we were connected and are now connected?
Answer: Only by special influences on these elements of memory that are in us. But they are very deep, and they must be literally pulled out into light by force.
Question: As a Kabbalist, speaking about the unity of the world, the unity of mankind, are you trying to penetrate into this depth where we are connected?
Answer: Yes.
Comment: And at the same time you say that it is very difficult, almost impossible.
My Response: Of course.
Question: But you keep doing it all the same?
Answer: What else can we do? In practice, the good outcome of our story depends on this.
Question: Is such a point in a person, barely noticeable, called the unity of the world: “I am one with the world,” and this is where we need to break through?
Answer: Yes. Otherwise, there is simply darkness ahead.
Question: Do you have a feeling that this task is almost impossible?
Answer: It is absolutely impossible. But we must do it anyway.
Question: How can we convey this to an ordinary person today?
Answer: When there is absolutely no way out of a situation, a person does incredible things. And this shows us what should be done. Kabbalists speak about this. So, you move from your logic to someone else’s. You accept their methodology, their ideology, their advice. You just put their head in place of yours and work that way.
Question: When there is no other way out?
Answer: Yes. Otherwise your ego will not allow you to do it. Otherwise it will always look for a way out in the same plane. It will be over soon, I hope.
Comment: It seems as if there is no specific way out.
My Response: Yes, it has already been discussed calmly.
Comment: And calmly accepted, which is very interesting. And here again the same thing happens: “Perhaps this will not affect me, it will affect others.”
My Response: No, what does it mean “will not affect”? It is as if you are saying that after it rains on Thursday, a meteorite will fall on the Earth and turn the Earth into a pancake, and at the same time you say: “And we can prevent it with our reasonable, correct, general intervention, mental intervention.”
Question: It is getting nearer and there is only one way to stop it?
Answer: Yes. Like this: “Brothers, earthlings! A great trouble is approaching and our only opportunity is to mentally unite.”
If we mentally unite and with our common thought wish to change its trajectory and remain in our good position, united together in order to drive it away, we will begin to understand that this trouble is not a problem. It is in order to bring us to a better state, to unification. And in this state of unification, we must continue to exist. Let’s not just do it for a moment, but make it so that it does not go away.
Question: Is this a Kabbalistic idea?
Answer: It is the Creator’s idea. The war against egoism must be to the end, to its complete correction into bestowal and love.
On one hand, it will not give up. On the other hand, everything depends on us. We need to take the responsibility of our correction above our logic.
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From KabTV’s “News with Dr. Michael Laitman” 10/8/20
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Feeling The Suffering Of The Whole World
Working With Our Desires Independently
The World Around Me: It’s Me Under A Magnifying Glass
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